Contents

How to Unlock

Play VS Matches, with Cloud being the 55th character unlocked. (fastest method)

Clear Classic Mode with Samus or any character in her character tree, with Cloud being unlocked after Dark Samus.

Have Cloud join the party in World of Light. (slowest method)

With the exception of the third method, Cloud must be fought and defeated on Midgar.

Attributes

Strengths

Fast movement speed on both ground and air. Under the effect of Limit Break, his Dashing Speed and Air Speed both increase.

Capable of wall jumping.

Very high jumps and double jumps.

Low and reliable short hop is useful for setting juggles with his Up Air.

Many of his attacks have hitboxes that are long in duration, with high active frames.

Except for the first two hits of his Neutral Attack and his Down Tilt, all of his attacks have disjointed hitboxes as he fights with a sword. Thanks to this, he has high priority on most of his attacks.

Strong aerial attacks that are safe on shield if properly spaced.

Fast and powerful Smash Attacks and Special Attacks that can score earlier KOs if used at the right time.

Down Tilt moves forwards along the ground, leading into various aerial combos. It also allows him to dodge some attacks.

His Buster Sword grants him a large range for most attacks.

Forward Aerial, Down Aerial and the third hit of Climhazzard can Meteor Smash.

Blade Beam has low startup and travels quite fast, and when Limit Break is full, it gains multi-hit properties and deals much more damage and knockback.

His Up Special, Climhazzard, is quite fast and launches Cloud upwards, much like Marth and Lucina's Dolphin Slash. When Limit Break is full, it sends Cloud extremely high. Similarly to Shulk's Up Special, pressing the Special button again while performing this move will cause Cloud to quickly plummet downward with his sword extended.

His Down Special, Limit Charge, when fully charged slightly increases all his stats, and powers up his Special Moves in terms of damage, launch power, and in some cases distance covered or even adds multi-hit attributes. Much like other charging attacks, the player can cancel the charge with side dodge or shield. It is also possible to cancel it into normal attacks. He can use Finishing Touch as his Down Special once using Limit Break, which can deal massive knockback to nearby enemies, despite only dealing 1% damage. Like Little Mac, Cloud's Limit Bar fills when he deals and takes damage. However, it can be manually filled via Limit Charge if desired.

Weaknesses

Lacks consistent KO potential due to Limit.

Poor recovery, especially if Limit is not active.

Poor grab game.

Easily pressured.

Lacks effective approach options.

Requires high resource management.

Summary

Changes from SSBWU/3DS

Cloud was heavily nerfed in the transition to Ultimate, presumably due to his status as one of the best characters in the previous title. The majority of his attacks have a shorter reach and more end lag, particularly his aerials, which were notorious for being powerful options in Super Smash Bros. 4. Perhaps the most severe change to Cloud is the timer established to Limit, which necessitates very effective management of it when active, which can be an extreme detriment when recovering or landing a finishing blow, as well as the changes to Limit Charge, as Cloud can lose some of his Limit if he is attacked while charging.

However, due to universal changes Cloud's aerial game is still powerful due to reduced landing lag, as well as the buff in movement speed adding to his excellent mobility. The reintroduction of directional air dodging slightly alleviates his poor horizontal recovery and allows him to avoid pressure easily. Finally, his Special Moves were buffed to be given more utility, most notably Blade Beam and Climhazzard.

Attributes

The Limit Gauge is now displayed next to Cloud's damage meter similar to in his home game where his Limit Gauge was next to his HP Gauge in that game.

Cloud's Limit Break form only lasts for 15 seconds before requiring him to recharge it.

Ground Attacks

Aerial Attacks

Aerials have less landing lag.

Grabs and Throws

Special Attacks

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Normal

Neutral Attack: Cloud kicks forward once, and then kicks with his other leg, finishing with a sword swing forwards.

Forward Tilt: Cloud swings his sword forwards.

Up Tilt: Cloud swings his sword overhead.

Down Tilt: Cloud slides forwards across the ground with his legs extended for a kick.

Dash Attack: Cloud slams forth with the entire edge of the blade.

Smash Attacks

Forward Smash: Cloud rapidly slashes the sword three times in front of himself.

Up Smash: Cloud swings the sword upwards, hitting in front of and above himself. You can press Up Smash again to go down, sorta like Ike and his Up B

Down Smash: Cloud strikes low to the ground in front of himself with the hilt of the sword, and then slams the blade of the sword backwards; first hit links into the second hit.

Other attacks

Floor Attack (Front):

Floor Attack (Back):

Floor Attack (Trip):

Ledge Attack:

Aerial Attacks

Neutral aerial: Cloud swings his sword around himself in a circle.

Forward aerial: Cloud powerfully swings the sword in a downwards arc in front of himself; spikes when sweet-spotted.

Back aerial: Cloud turns and swings his sword behind himself.

Up aerial: Cloud slams the sword upwards, holding it horizontally.

Down aerial: Cloud slams the sword downwards; spikes when sweet-spotted.

Idle Poses

Victory Poses

In competitive play

All of Cloud's battles are done on vehicle stages. This is a reference to the fact that he usually suffers from motion sickness. His song in the credits is "Fight On!", the main boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.

Although Cloud does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Cloud was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He is unlocked in the Sacred Land sub-area in the Realm of Darkness, guarding the Master Sword required to dispel the darkness clouding the top part of the land which makes up the Triforce of Power.